Paradise now

Hany Abu-Assad's disturbing yet moving tale finds two men at a critical juncture in their lives. They've been drafted as suicide bombers in an upcoming assignment in Tel Aviv. Granted a night to spend with their families, they go home but are unable to say goodbye for fear of tipping their hand. But perhaps it isn't time for farewells yet as the two become separated during the mission and must decide on their own whether to continue or bail out.

It's not hard to imagine that if a commercial Hollywood blockbuster studio had done this film, they would have chosen a less cerebral approach and added a pointless car chase and spectacular special effects with poorly cast big names. Fortunately this independent film chose to focus on the psychological and ideological elements of this complicated predicament that is very much a reality today.

This movie does make a political statement and one which is very easy to associate for non-US viewers but ofcourse not the American viewers. The fact that America supports "freedom' yet continues to support the brutal supression, occupation and colonilaztion of Palestineans by the Israelis just goes to show how much hypocricy prevails in this world. THis movie does not condone suicide bombing but tries to give the story behind it. This might not be the 'fair and balance view' aka Fox news but for the US viewers its a much needed education about a place of the world whose future is intrexibly linked to ours.

I thought this was a very powerful and well-made film. The acting was excellent, as are the script, direction, and cinematography. Perhaps the biggest challenge with a film on such a controversial topic is what position it takes. Unlike a plethora of western literature (movies,TV shows, novels) which is inherently biased towards Arabs and muslims this one dishes out a point of view which is cyring out to be heard and it is time that we in the west got the chance to hear that.

Ratting: 4/5